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Save the Date! AGM Planning Underway

As set out in the Canadian Friends Historical Association governance, the Annual General Meeting of the Association will be held on a weekend towards the end of September. This year’s AGM will take place on September 26th, 2020. Please save this date! We can expect some changes thanks to Covid-19. The main meeting room at Friends House in Toronto has been booked, but it is too early to know whether an in-person AGM will be possible. Look for updates in the coming weeks. It is Read more

By Gordon Thompson, ago

New Transcription: Toronto Monthly Meeting, 1893-1902 (B-2-47)

We’ve updated our transcriptions page with a new upload: Toronto Monthly Meeting (Orthodox) book from 1893-1902. You can also see the PDF here: https://cfha.info/staging/TorontoMMB-2-47.pdf The Toronto Quaker Meeting continues to be an active meeting to this day. More about the history of the meeting can be found on the first page of the transcription. The minutes themselves provide a wealth of information for researchers and genealogists alike. Visitors were welcomed and certificates of membership accepted from meetings in England (Newcastle, London, and Norwich), Ireland (Lisburn Read more

By Sydney Harker, ago

Robynne Rogers Healey, Sydney Harker form New Blog Editorial Team

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Robynne Rogers Healey and Sydney Harker as the new CFHA Blog Editorial Team. Together they will build and expand on the work that has been accomplished by Allana Mayer since the blog was launched four months ago. Many of our members will remember both Robynne and Sydney. Robynne is currently Professor of History, and Co-director of the Gender Studies Institute at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. She is the author of From Quaker to Upper Read more

By CFHA, ago

Thoughts on thirty years of Tecumseth Preparative Meeting Minutes

This guest post is contributed by Doug Smith. Doug Smith volunteered on the transcription of the minute book of Tecumseth Preparative Meeting 1869-1899 (O-8-6) (PDF), as can be found in our Transcriptions page. Here are some of his reflections based on reading the minute book and his own knowledge of the area.  Friends gather to worship in their Meeting Houses. They do Meeting business there and obviously socialize. Although members may live some distance away, they are said to come from their Meeting, in this Read more

By CFHA, ago
Plaque of the Dunkerron Quaker cemetery.

CFHA to produce new ‘George Fox’ set of ‘Who are the Quakers?’ display panels with grant from Samuel Rogers Memorial Trust

CFHA is pleased to announce that design and production of a new set of ‘Who are the Quakers?’ panels will commence shortly. The new panel set will present the life and ministry of George Fox, widely regarded as the spiritual and organisational founder of the Religious Society of Friends. The layout and composition of the new panels will be consistent with the popular existing set. The new set will consist of 8 panels. These will chronicle the early years of George Fox, his  early profound Read more

By Gordon Thompson, ago

Access Ancestry Library Edition from home

All over the world, digital research collections are being prioritized to ensure continuing access to people working from home, self-isolating, or sheltering in place. Ancestry is no different: they’ve made their usual Library Edition (only available at the computer terminals of contracting public libraries) available from home. Go to your local public library’s website and see if Ancestry Library Edition is now available for you from home. All you need to do is enter your library card number. Libraries from Halifax to Vancouver Island are Read more

By CFHA, ago

Find us on Facebook!

The CFHA is now on Facebook! We’ve set up a page you can follow to see new blog posts, articles, events, and news shared by the community. You can find us at https://www.facebook.com/Canadian-Friends-Historical-Association-100910118316978/ Every blog post we publish here will automatically appear there. A special thanks to Sydney Harker for volunteering her time and helping us set this up. The page will not be monitored by the CFHA executive, so if you’d like our attention, please come to the blog to post comments, or send us Read more

By CFHA, ago

Annual Gathering at Uxbridge Friends Meetinghouse Postponed

The Committee of Friends Meetinghouse, Uxbridge, Ontario is a group of local Uxbridge and area citizens who have provided stewardship and access to the 200-year-old local Quaker meetinghouse. They are the group which organizes and presents a popular annual gathering and contemporary church service mid-June of each year.  It is not uncommon for this to be a standing-room only event. This year the event is postponed but not cancelled. Circumstances allowing the gathering will be rescheduled to September or October 2020. Details will be posted Read more

By Gordon Thompson, ago

Researcher question: Do you know anything about the Lundy family?

We’ve received a researcher question to be put to the expertise of the CFHA and its membership: Hello, I just discovered that my great, great grandfather, Enos Lundy III, was a Quaker, whose father, Enos Lundy II and grandfather, Enos Lundy I, immigrated to Canada from Pennsylvaia, USA, in 1805. They settled in York County in Whitchurch Township I believe. The house built by Enos Lundy (II I beieve) has been designated a heritage home by Aurora. Enos III was father to Sarah, who married Read more

By CFHA, ago

A quick history lesson from NPR on how Quakers invented the price tag

  NPR’s Planet Money published this charming video about the history of charging fair prices to consumers: For most of human history, you had to haggle over prices before you could buy something. The Quakers were among the first people to commit to fixed prices — and they did it because they thought it was more fair. Turned out, it was also good business. This is the strange story of the long journey of that little piece of paper.

By CFHA, ago